Check our brand new site TheRetroSite , although YouRememberThat will remain for quite some time we expect this new site to be our new home. Click over and create your account on the new mobile friendly and flexible site today!

In the 1920s, after many years entertaining crowds as an escape artist, Houdini changed his show to expose the methods and motivations of the Spiritualists, a group who claimed they could contact the dead through sťances. Testifying against them in Congress, he also exposed their tricks while on stage, an act he turned into a Broadway show. Soon, Houdini received death threats from the group. Tags:1920houdiniposterAdded: 25th July 2007Views: 7236Rating:Posted By:Teresa

One of the weirder phenomena of the 1920s was the popularity of flagpole-sitting, a strange publicity gimmick mastered by Alvin (Shipwreck) Kelly. In 1924 Kelly was hired by a Hollywood press agent to promote a new film by sitting on the flagpole above the Los Angeles theater where the movie was playing. He remained there for 13 hours and 13 days, starting a bizarre national craze. By 1928 Kelly was earning over $100 per day for his stunts--fantastic money in those days. The apex of Kelly's career occurred in 1930 when he spent 1,177 hours atop a 125-foot flagpole at Atlantic City's Steel Pier. The Great Depression, however, diminished the public's appetite for such stunts. By the end of 1930 Kelly's stunts were earning him little more than pocket change. His last public appearance of any significance occurred in 1939. Broke and on welfare, Kelly dropped dead in 1952 while walking between two parked cars in New York City. Clutched tightly in one arm was a scrapbook containing clippings and momentos from his glory days as King of the Flagpole Sitters. Tags:ShipwreckKellyFlagpoleSitterAdded: 21st November 2007Views: 12425Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

Branch Rickey, one of baseball's greatest minds, was a mystery challenger on What's My Line on September 13, 1959. Rickey had twice revolutionized the game: He introduced the farm system in the 1920s. He also signed Jackie Robinson to a contract, effectively racially integrating the major leagues. Rickey's proposed Continental Baseball League never got off the ground, but it did prompt the exisitng major leagues to grant expansion franchises. Tags:BranchRickeyWhatsMyLineAdded: 8th March 2009Views: 1299Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

Widely regarded as the most beautiful movie actress of the 1920s, Clara Bow poses on a beach in a swimsuit for a publicity photo. I'm big on nostalgia, but I think I prefer Kathy Ireland's 1989 SI cover photo to this. Call me fickle. Tags:ClaraBowswimsuitAdded: 19th February 2008Views: 1594Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

France's Suzanne Lenglen was pretty much invincible in women's tennis in the 1920s, losing only one match of significance in singles from 1914 through 1926. She ruled the sport when the major tournaments were amatuer events only. This photo of Lenglen was taken at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Considered a sex symbol in her heyday, Lenglen turned professional after 1926 and played a series of exhibition matches in the United States that didn't draw very good crowds because Lenglen so outclassed her competition. She died of leukemia in 1938 when she was only 39 years old. Tags:SuzanneLenglentennisAdded: 20th February 2008Views: 985Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

Canadian born Florence Lawrence was America's first big movie star--but no one knew her name. During the first decade of the twentieth century, movie companies did not publicize their actors' names in order to keep their salaries down. Florence Lawrence made dozens of films for D.W. Griffith's Biograph Company and became the studio's most noteworthy star. Nevertheless she remained anonymous. Known to her fans only as 'the Biograph girl,' she was earning just $25 per week. When she left Biograph in 1910 to join the newly formed IMP company, her new studio started a false rumor that she had been killed in a streetcar accident in St. Louis. It then announced that 'the Biograph girl' was Florence Lawrence. She was alive and well and about to star in a new film for IMP. This was likely the first Hollywood publicity stunt. Lawrence appeared in more than 300 films, but her popularity waned almost as quickly as it had grown. By the 1920s she had only uncredited bit roles and was earning $75 per week. The Great Depression ruined her finanacially and she endured three unhappy marriages. In December 1938, a week before 53rd birthday, Lawrence committed suicide by ingesting ant paste. Tags:FlorenceLawrenceBiographgirlAdded: 4th March 2008Views: 1209Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

Here's another defunct restaurant chain that I miss: Mother's Pizza. The one in my hometown had a real 1920s atmosphere. They showed silent movies and had lots of cool antiques as decorations. The food was great too! Dennis Weaver did this commercial for Mother's sometime in the early 1980s. Tags:MothersPizzacommercialDennisWeaverAdded: 5th March 2008Views: 1081Rating:Posted By:Lava1964